Whenever I run into a new project by Lorenzo Feliciati , first thing I do is to dig into the list of musicians. And I smile thinking of combinations of musicians that I have loved in different moments of my life, but I would never have thought to hear them in the same context. So it happens to run into the angular rhythms of Pat Mastelotto next to the delicate lines of NilsPetter Molvaer , in the inventive drumming of Steve Jansen alongside only the extreme of Mattias IA Eklundh , in the soundscapes of Eivind Aarset and soon after in Bob Mintzer’s visceral voice . Prog, ECM sound, norwegian jazz, hyper-technical guitar, fusion, electronics. The myselfs of the 20s, of the 25s, of the 30s and the 35s all together in the same place. Wow!
Elevator Man is the fourth solo album of the roman bassist and the third one signed by Giacomo Bruzzo’s RareNoise . A partnership that has been going on for years through very different projects. It spans from Mumpbeaks’s Tooth heavy prog, easily one of best albums I’ve listened to in 2017, along with the Norgevese-but-English-born keyboard master Roy Powell, whom is also joining Elevator Man. Earlier appearing in Naked Truth’s mixture of prog, fusion and electronic with two sacred vanguard monsters like Graham Haynes on trumpet and Bill Laswell on production, joined again by Roy Powell and Pat Mastelotto’s drums; not to forget the twinscapes ambient, rock and electronic duo with former Porcupine bassist Colin Edwin; or the powerful mix of prog and avant rock with the voice of Lorenzo Esposito Fornasari on Berserk! – Scroll down to hear the sampler. And outside of the projects signed at his name, to follow Lorenzo is even more difficult.
Elevator Man is simply a pleasantly heterogeneous album, full of solutions that go to uncover from an arsenal of styles different from each other, a riff at the Weather Report followed by a luminescent soundscape, then a rhythm in odd times and finally, an then a lyrical jazz. An album that always maintains a strong cohesion, thanks to has been set up in a limited time, three months, and a great production work. A sound smoothed by a great job of mixing and mastering together with a writing full of ‘hooks’ for listening and catchy riffs. Go and hear the opening with the homonymous piece Elevator Man. A pumped bass makes perfect intro to an instrumental prog built on a few notes that move in semitones above and below, creating a disturbing background without making us stop headbanging. The low-colored bass effect, rich in groove. The comparison is easy with Tony Levin’s Sleepless and his skills to do the most with few.
Unlike the previous KOI , this time Lorenzo has worked on an album not shaped by a common thread, by a basic concept. The almost stable formation of the previous one, for example Steve Jansen almost always on drums and Alessandro Gwis on the piano, here contrasts with the choice of different formations for each piece. With the result that each piece is molded on the musicians it hosts. Thus Brick of the Mumpbeak trio gives space to the wind trio of Stan Adams , Pierluigi Bastioli and Duilio Ingrosso , comrades also in the Operaia Orchestra by Massimo Nunzi as well as on the previous solo album . The initial riff is much more powerful in this version than in the one contained in Tooth : on this the English keyboard player Roy Powel brings the lacerated sound of his clavinet, made like a guitar – one of the secrets of the beauty of Mumpbeak ! And to the battery a surgical ChadWackerman .
In the following 14 Stones , characterized by a lopsided funeral march, nothing seems more natural to feel Pat Mastelotto next to a Cuong Vu, which maintains calm even in the moments of greatest frenzy of the song and leaves the tension gradually rise. Whereas Alessandro Gwis , on the other hand, lets himself go in the background at the edge of the piece. Lorenzo Feliciati is the skeleton of the song and has not the slightest desire to perform, confirming that Elevator Man is not an electric bass recital, but an album where each piece seems written for its specific line-up.
The dreamlike soundscape of Black Book, Red Letters seems to come out from an album by Nils Petter Molvaer : the dialogue between the trumpet of ClaudioCorvini and the sax of Sandro Satta is full of lyricism and delicacy, until the final tail end built on a agreement repeated to the extreme.
Lorenzo uses a quite unmistakable sound, always big and present, never muddied, colored the right chorus and effects: in short, listening to it is always a pleasure.Jaco Pastorius is the reference point that pushed him, after seeing the last tour of the Weather Report with him at the bass in Rome in 1980, to take up the instrument. Influence I feel so much in this sound always full of power, but sweet and slightly fluted. But also in many fill with the Weather Report flavor scattered in the disc.
For example, the 80s fusion influences are at the base of the initial round of Unchained Houdini (where the dry sound chosen for the bass this time goes to draw from my memory such Andy Ramirez, obscure bassist on the Parallax album by guitarist Greg Howe !). And then continue in an odd, decidedly heavy time with more prog flavor. A disc that abounds with changes of time and style, as in Thief Like Me that opens with a new wave button section, and then becomes funk. So, Aidan Zammit builds a long progression of changes that do not put Marco Sfogliin the slightest discomfort , which frees one of a great craft and shot. Before a zawinuliana outro.
Still very prog is the 9/8 opening of SOS , with yet only one pullatissimo of a shredder like Mattias IA Eklundh . To confirm that next to musicians who work less on the instrumental technique, we do not have the slightest problem to see Lorenzo next to hyper-technical guitarists, such as Alessandro Benvenuti, with whom he shares a trio currently, or to Fabio Cerrone of Virtual Dream , with whom had played in a previous edition of the Roman prog festival Progressively .
Elevator Man seems anything but a musician’s album that wants to show how he can play an instrument. The writing of the disc is always above the parts, balances appealing ideas next to research solutions, it mixes more and more styles at the same time, it stimulates the listener to go in more places. All arranged at the highest levels.